Giron beats Spencer to reach quarterfinals at USTA Men’s Pro Tennis Championships of Calabasas

One day after being being forced to play three sets in his first-round match, Marcos Giron of nearby Thousand Oaks upped his focus when it counted the most to avoid a similar scenario in his second-round match on Thursday at the USTA Men’s Pro Tennis Championships of Calabasas.

Giron, a former standout at UCLA and the 2014 winner of this event, defeated fellow American Will Spencer of Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., 6-2, 7-5 to punch his ticket into a quarterfinal match Friday against No. 3 seed Tommy Paul of Boca Raton, Fla.

Ripping big forehands to every spot on the court Giron, seeded No. 6, dominated the first set 6-2 and had a few break-point chances to take the opening game of the second set. But the 27-year-old Spencer, connecting on impressive passing shots under pressure, eventually held serve that game and made the second set highly competitive.

Giron, currently ranked No. 444 on the ATP Tour, got the decisive break he needed at 5-5 and then served out the match in the next game.

In other second-round singles matches on Thursday all seeded players in advanced to the quarterfinals except No. 7 Dominik Koepfer of Germany, who fell in three sets to Daniel Nolan of Australia 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Top seed Mackenzie McDonald of Piedmont, Calif., only had to play 12 games in his match because his opponent, Julian Lenz of Germany, retired with an injury trailing 6-0, 4-2.

Other players to advance to the quarterfinals were No. 4 seed Sebastian Fanselow of Germany, No. 8 seed Jared Hiltzik of Wilmette, Ill., Karue Sell of Jaragua du Sul, Brazil, and wild-card entrant Bradley Klahn of Poway, Calif.

Paul, who defeated Fred Simonsson of Sweden 7-5, 6-3 in his second-round match, has a ranking of No. 304 on the ATP Tour. Paul, 19, and Giron, 23, are highly accomplished players. Paul won the 2015 Junior Boys title at the French Open, while Giron is a former Easter Bowl champion and 2014 NCAA singles champion.

In first-round double play No. 1 seeds Sergey Betov of Belarus and Luis David Martinez of Venezuela won in straight sets. The No. 2 seeds Farris Fathi Gosea of Great Britain and Alex Lawson of the United States needed three sets to win their match.

Thursday’s Second-Round Singles Scores
wc: wild card
Tommy Paul (3), USA, def. Fred Simonsson, SWE 7-5, 6-3.
Mackenzie McDonald (1), USA, def. Julian Lenz, GER 6-0, 6-2, ret.
Marcos Giron (6), USA, def. Will Spencer, USA 6-2, 7-5.
Jared Hiltzik (8), USA, def. Keegan Smith, USA, 6-4, 6-2.
Sebastian Fanselow (4), GER, def. John Lamble, USA, 6-2, 6-0.
Bradley Klahn (wc), USA, def. Jan Choinski, GER, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
Daniel Nolan, AUS, def. Dominik Koepfer (7), GER, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
Karue Sell, BRA, def. Samir Iftikhar, PAK 6-1, 6-1

Thursday’s First-Round Doubles Scores
Gonzalez Austin, USA / Nathaniel Lammons, USA def. Mousheg Hovhannisyan, USA / Finn  Tearney, NZL, 7-5, 6-2.
Benjamin Hannestad, DEN / Hunter Reese, USA def. Michael Geerts, BEL / Calvin Hemery (3), FRA 3-6, 6-4, 10-6.
Farris Fathi Gosea, GBR / Alex Lawson (2), USA def. Alexios Halebian, USA / Evan Song, USA 6-2, 6-7 (5), 10-5.
Sergey Betov, BLR / Luis David Martinez (1), VEN def. Jan Choinski, GER / Daniel Nolan, AUS 6-4, 7-5.
Marcos Giron, USA / Julian Lenz, GER def. Sebastian Bader, AUT / Sebastian Fanselow, GER 7-5, 7-6 (9).

Championship weekend begins Friday with a Pro-am drill from 9 to 11 a.m. and later in the day a Community Tennis Appreciation Night. During the Friday evening session local USTA and WTT captains and other San Fernando Valley area tennis leaders will be recognized.

There will also be a VIP/Sponsor-Partner Reception, USTA League Player Challenge and Stadium Court Junior Exhibitions on Friday.

Saturday’s events include the semifinals along with a USTA Junior Team Tennis Kid’s Tennis Carnival from10:30 a.m. to noon.